The Green Ship Technology (GST) Conference, March 22- 24, Copenhagen explores the latest developments in vessel design and equipment. It aims to make the world fleet greener and more efficient and attracts delegates from all areas of the shipping and marine industry.

David Wing, one of Houlder’s Senior Naval Architects, (below) will be speaking at the event sharing the green ship technology included in the company’s latest ferry design. The 89.7m Wightlink G class ropax ferry, currently under construction in Turkey, is part of Wightlink’s Investing for the Future programme. Houlder have also been supporting Wightlink as they upgrade shore side infrastructure as part of planned service enhancements.

Green ship technology is key to the success of the G Class design. It is a diesel-electric hybrid ship operating on Marine Gas Oil (MGO) and batteries. Its battery packs are powerful enough to smooth out power demands so the engines run close to optimum efficiency at all times. The power storage is large enough to power the ship with the MGO engines switched off. This is particularly welcomed by Wightlink as it means zero emissions and significantly reduced operating noise.

The vessel also has other ingenious energy saving features such as low power LED motion sensitive lighting, elevators use gravity to generate electricity and put power back into the system and heating that uses waste heat from the engines. The engines are being supplied by Wartsila and the batteries are by Corvus Energy.

David will be explaining these green shipping technology features in detail and other aspects of the design at his conference session “Case study: Design for operation of hybrid technology” 10:00am, March 23rd. You can read more here.